Mind vs Matter

So... this is a concept I've been throwing around my head the past couple of days, and I think it'll be pretty awesome, but I'll let you guys be the judges of that.

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Bryce walked through the streets of Crisis City, whistling to himself, as he continued to patrol for any signs of danger. It had been several weeks following the end of the conflict, and the downfall of Terra Co. if only for a moment. But it was business as usual, he was now a Super Hero to these people, and he'd be damned if anyone was going to stop him now.

Picking up a mental spike to his immediate left, he turned towards a younger child, stomping her foot into the ground to the sound of some music, causing cracks to form in the concrete. Ducking into a back alleyway, he quickly removed his civilian clothes, as he teleported by the girl's side.

"Hey, you can't be doing that in public." He replied calmly. "Where's your parents?"

Before Blaine could finish his sentence, however, Bryce had put up another mental barrier, rocketing into him with a powerful punch. Blaine slid across the concrete, his boots digging deep into the asphalt beneath his feet. Grabbing around the slightly visible barrier containing Bryce, Blaine span around in his boots, as he threw the Meta into the Skyscraper beside him.

Jumping in afterwards, Bryce stood there, holding his hand out. Blaine stopped in his tracks, as he clenched his fists. Something foreign was in his head, he felt his control slipping. But he would NOT be beaten by mind games. Swinging his right fist out, he shattered one of the support beams of the building. Continuing his struggle for mental dominance, Blaine accidentally destroyed more of the beams, as the building around them groaned.

Bryce stopped his mind manipulation long enough to glance around, as the glass to the windows shattered finely into dust, the building on top of them threatened to collapse at any second. Blaine, realizing the danger Toni was in, jumped back out the hole he had made, and grabbed his Granddaughter, fleeing the immediate area as fast as his feet would go.

Hailing his Pelican to his position, he gingerly tossed her into the hovering craft, as the building continued it's descent onto the top of his head. Bryce, however, flew outside of the hole, and continued to race towards the super soldier's location. As the building drew nearer to Blaine and Bryce, the soldier planted his fist firmly onto the floor.

Bryce teleported a safe distance away, as the rubble and debris washed over the soldier's location. Sure that his foe was defeated, he began to walk over to check on the humans left inside. He was shocked, however, as a gauntlet covered hand shot up from the debris, as Blaine pulled himself out of the wreckage.

"And all of this because you couldn't take no for an answer." Blaine shook his head. "Pathetic how you pay no attention to the innocents around you."

"YOU CAUSED THIS!" Bryce roared.

"You were the one playing mind games. Stop playing tricks and fight me like a goddamned man!" Blaine stood atop the wreckage, at the ready for Bryce's attack.

Sure enough it came, as Blaine swung his right boot masterfully, shattering the Meta's mental barrier, and hitting him square in the side of his temple, launching him into the street. Charging over, Bryce struggled to stand, as Blaine struck a massive punch down and into Bryce's shield, shattering it and hitting him into the ground further. Launching Blaine away with his mind, Bryce hefted the nearby Oil tanker, throwing it with ease with his mind.

"Just what the fuck are you." Blaine chuckled, as he braced himself.

Catching the tanker with both of his arms stretched wide, he stumbled backwards a few feet, as the driver bailed from the vehicle. Tossing it back at Bryce, the Spartan used the distraction to punch his target square in the gut, followed up by a nasty uppercut, launching the Meta high into the air.

"So why can't we just end this squalor?" Blaine roared up to Bryce. "Yer people are dying, an' fer what? Yer pride?! I ain't even from this Planet, I came here for research!"

"You have a funny way of doing it!" Bryce scoffed. "Who brings their Granddaughter to another Planet?"

"In my dimension I DO!" Blaine growled. "'Cause I can actually protect my people from scum like you!"

Bryce fumed at Blaine's statement, shattering the sound barrier as he rocketed down the side of the building, glass shattered in his wake, as Blaine activated his jet pack, rocketing upwards towards the Meta. Both of their fists cocked, the struck each other, as a plume of dust appeared between them, launching them in separate directions.

"Oh, so you think you're strong?" a feminine voice called from behind Blaine. "Allow me to demonstrate STRENGTH!"

Lifting Blaine with ease, the woman tossed him at another man, who stood opposite of her, fire erupting from his hands. Thrusting a nasty right hook, the man's fiery fists made contact, popping Blaine's shields, as the woman charged at him, faster than a shadow.

Ducking under her right hook, he was no match for her leg swing, as the man behind him table topped him, sending the Spartan onto his back. Rolling to his right, Blaine wielded his pistol, firing several rounds at the fire castor. The bullets were caught by the air itself, as they were frozen and redirected towards him.

"You don't wanna play fair." Bryce descended on the Spartan. "We're returning the favor. You need a chill pill."

Flipping back onto his feet, the Spartan would not be defeated by these mutants, or whatever the hell they were. Smashing his fist on the ground, a shockwave blew all of them back, as his frozen bullets struck his armor locked form.

Tossing down a flash bang, he dead sprinted towards the woman first. The explosive detonated, disorienting the three Metas, as Blaine struck Chloe in the skull, face down into the dirt, smashing her in the face with a boot.

Turning on his heels, he fired three successive rounds into the fire castor's right hand, blood spilling onto the pavement. Rushing over, he gave the Meta a strong jab to the stomach, launching the otherwise normal human down the street and into the debris of the previously felled building.

Behind him, he could hear the pavement crackling beneath his feet, as the woman attempted to lift a chunk out of the ground. Firing a round at her feet, she flinched again as he struck her with the butt of his pistol. Throwing a right hook, Chloe parried the shot with her own lightning fists, throwing a left jab. Blaine countered with a kick to her shin, as he smashed his helmet into her forehead. Turning on his heels, he smashed his elbow into the bridge of her nose, snapping her head backwards, before turning back and kicking her square in the torso away from him.

"Is that the best you can honestly give me?" Blaine turned to Bryce. "I mean, the strong woman is impressive. But magic tricks?! It's gonna take a helluva lot more than that to take down this Spartan, boyo. I WAS MADE FOR COMBAT!!"

Pausing for just a second, Bryce full body tackled Blaine at impossible speeds, lifting the Spartan super soldier through a single Skyscraper, and high into the air above Crisis City.

Bryce swung fist after fist into Blaine's helmet, angering the Spartan with the pathetic little dings to his helmet.

Mjolnir overcharge mode engaged. Infinite use Jet Pack currently set to maximum levels.

Smashing his helmet into Bryce's face, he heard the teenager's nose snap in three places, as blood froze to his visor. Kicking the kid away, his super charged jetpack came to life, as he rocketed towards the kid, who dodged his swing, retaliating with his own super speed punch.

Striking Blaine square in the helmet, the Spartan's teeth chattered with that hit, as he was launched several feet away from his previous location. The Meta charged again, readying another, blow, as the Spartan anticipated him, swinging his own nasty hook into Bryce's face.

The Meta recoiled, obviously very hurt by the Spartan's punches, yet surprisingly resilient compared to the beating he had taken up to this point. Bolting through Crisis City once more, Blaine's jet packs whirred up, as it became a high speed chase throughout the city.

Ramming the Spartan from behind through another large building, Bryce smiled, before Blaine retaliated with his own punch, launching the Meta into a different part of the same building. Bryce once again charged at the Spartan, ramming him into the largest building in the city, holding the super soldier's helmet up against the glass, dragging him across the building. Preparing another momentum fueled punch, Blaine caught it, the new hole in his visor revealing the twinkle in his light blue eyes.

Swatting his attacker's fist aside, Blaine smashed the Meta in the chin with a wicked uppercut, launching Bryce high above his head. Grabbing the boy's ankles, Blaine whirled around in circles, before launching the kid through several building throughout the town.

Teleporting behind Blaine, the nearly unconscious Bryce tackled the Spartan at full speed, launching them towards the pavement below. Blaine, however, out matched the Meta in terms of strength, gaining dominance easily, as the two of them crashed to the ground below, both hearing numerous bones breaking.

Bryce tried to struggle out, as Blaine shoved the teenager's face back into the pavement, before holding him in an arm bar. The Meta choked as Blaine gripped the boy's throat with his arm.

Blaine felt his Spartan instinct begin to relax, as he released his grip from Bryce's neck, but again, neither of them moved, only their eyeballs. The owner of the voice could tell Blaine was confused.

"What in the fuck are you on about, boyo?" the man replied, typing into a laptop, before pointing to Blaine.

"What in the fuck are you on about, boyo?" Blaine asked, but then immediately grabbed at his throat in confusion.

"But I'll be blunt, you both disgust me." Morgan continued. "I wanted to introduce you two to each other finally, and you cause mass chaos in a world I had perfectly constructed with the help of others like me! Instead of trying to compare dick sizes, you two could've fought evil together. But instead, one of you wanted to be a stubborn fellow giving off the creeper vibe, and the other a head strong super soldier with a superiority complex."

"You were both created with Superman in mind, but here you are, fifteen minutes after you first met each other, and you've already killed millions of Civilians!! You're quite lucky I can repair all of this, otherwise I'd.... well, I dunno what I'd do. But you guys wouldn't like it."

"Thanks." Bryce shook his head, rubbing his throat. "But you should've let it go a bit longer, I had a plan to end this fuc-"

"-We'll try again another time." Morgan snapped. "A time when an actual common enemy for both of you appears in Crisis City. For now, this encounter will be erased from your minds, Bailey's trans-dimensional teleporter will no longer function, and you'll find yourselves in your own respective dimensions. Let this be a lesson to both of you. Mind and Matter are equally important... but the pen is mightier than the sword."

In what has to be the most immature battle known to mankind, it was the strong Blaine-115 versus the witty Bryce Howard.

You are correct, a NORMAL Spartan isn't generally that strong. But there was an underlying purpose to this story, one that I wrote somewhat subconsciously.

A conflict that had deeply affected me a couple of weeks ago, regarding these two characters; their development.

Bryce is always sticking his nose where it doesn't belong *mind reading/approaching meta's on the street/overall nosiness*. Whereas Blaine is a magnet for conflict *Superiority complex/ a Perfect character/ Overprotective*.

The concept of the fight, in my sense, was to show to myself just how powerful I really made Blaine out to be. Because you're right, there is NO way Blaine could beat the female version of Superman in hand to hand combat, let alone a Pyro and Cyrokinetic duo.

I mean, Blaine literally shattered Bryce's mental barrier with a solid punch!! Numerous times even!!! Blaine is listed as the biggest and strongest Spartan, with Jorge and Sam on par with him. If I had given him a Sniper in this particular instance, the carnage would've been tremendous if Bryce didn't stop ballistics with his mind.

So, while the story itself was fun as hell to write, it was also a way of reminding me WHY I'm redoing Blaine's story, why Bryce DID lose in this battle. Because it will prevent any of my future characters becoming Gary/Mary Stu/Sue's.

Mind vs. Matter is more than just the title, or a clever way of conveying Blaine's might versus Bryce's mind. It was literally my mind versus the urge to make any future character's overtly mighty.